Wasting/ throwing food

My conure, Dusty, throws his food all over the place.I feed him Exact Rainbow pellets. He has been on Exact his whole life. It is the only food he will eat. (he's a picky eater) Well I have found over the past few months that he tosses his food out of his dish with his beak or lays in the dish and kicks it all out... At first I thought it was boredome so I took coffee filters and covered his dish. He would break through the filters and would leave his food be unless he was eating. Now he tosses his food and then starts screaming when its all gone. If I give him more he tosses it all out again. His food isnt exactly cheap and I dont really have the money to keep buying more and more food. Does anyone have any suggestions to remedy this problem?

Parrot Enrichment
maybe you can try to make diffrent food more interesting. With my Sunday conure it takes a few days before she tries a new food.

as for the pellets I don't know?

I have tried new foods. He wants nothing to do with them...New foods make it to the cage bottom faster than his current food.

Thank you for the link By the way! Very helpful. I try to incorpurate enrichment into dusty's life where ever I can.

Yup it's a dusky....

Auggie eats out of something like this:
Popup Window 139072
Except his has a full dome top, so there is just a spot to stick his head in. He still throws some, but not nearly as much.

we used to sell those at my work...but when i went to buy one they decided to stop selling them. I think I may order one online when i order Dusty's food. Thanks!.
Right now he is eating out of a round stainless steal dish.

I'm having that problem with the macaws. I think I'm going to get some of those too. Your right, food is to expensive to be sucked up in the vacuum cleaner.

haha I dont have to clean it up with a vacuum. My dog loves my conure's food. She eats it up the second it hits the floor. Though yea...definitely expensive, especially when your job doesnt give you hours...so you dont get a paycheck in two weeks... Since posting this thread I have found a few ways to decrease his food throwing tho. I'm hoping they work for the long run.

It's odd, when I went to look for a dish like Auggie's I couldn't find them online anywhere, the topless one I posted is the closest I could find. I hope they didn't stop making the fully covered ones.

I had the same problem with my Sun Conure. Conures just love to make a mess! However, I found two things that have helped, a lot!

First, I got this type of food dish for my conure:

Hybrid-Bird-Cage-Friendly-Feeders

It's a pain to install (you'll need wire cutters or, for a stainless steel cage like mine, you'll need a rotary metal cutter). But, believe me, it's worth it! In order to throw food out of her bowl, my parrot now has to grab the food in her beak, back out of the food area, and then drop the food, before going back into the food enclosure. This has saved me so much money in wasted food! Not to mention, her cage is much easier to clean.

Second, I got my parrot a veggie kabob. It's a metal rod with a top that screws on. It allows you to skewer fruits and veggies and hang them from the top of the cage. This not only gives your parrot a healthier diet, it also gives him something to shred. For example, my parrot doesn't like lettuce, but when I skewer a bunch of lettuce and put it in her cage, she still has a lot of fun tearing it to shreds.

Here's a link to what I'm describing:

Garden Kabob Bird Treat Holder

Good luck!

I love the veggie kabob! With the new macaw coming home today, I'm sure there'll be a trip to the pet store this weekend. I'll see if I can find one.

I have a theory on parrot food. The harder they have to work for it the less they waste. I read that they waste as a natural instinct to plant seeds. Have no idea if it is true or not.

My African Grey throws food to the cats and the dog.
If they don't eat it she says Bad dog/cat LOL.
I know its pesky but a birds gotta do what they gotta do .
Could it be her way of getting attention ?
Some birds want 24/7
some are Happy with what time you have . Tammy

Throwing food for attention? Yes by all means this could be a learned behavior, especially in our genious greys. I heard of a gray that waited until the dog was below cage to eat the food she dropped then dropped her ball on dog's head. Lol

I think Figaro was Watching me Play fetch with the Cats and the Dog.
When they did Good id Praise them .
when they do something bad like the dog getting kitty litter out of the cats box id say Bat dog.
Pixie bobs are Very much dog like and we are all 1 huge family.
Greys are so much fun I had NO idea .
i got little Ienstine < spelling for human babies and let them watch it .
She now Argues with me and does it logically.
Darn bird she won yesterday . Tammy